Fifteen Years Between OBPs

Karaarf Wetland, 21 July 2012

Over the years I have conducted dozens of Orange-bellied Parrot surveys at Karaarf Wetlands (the Point Impossible Saltmarsh), near Torquay, but more recently I have tended to conduct my regular surveys at other nearby expanses of saltmarsh instead.  

On 21 July 2012, having visited the nearby creek estuary to look at the wintering Double-banded Plovers, as an afterthought I decided to renew my acquaintance with the wetland, and tramped into the saltmarsh.  I simply wanted to see what birds were about, and watching parrots was the last thing on my mind.

The going is never easy at this site, as extensive sections are vegetated with tall Shrubby Glasswort bushes which are largely impenetrable, and so I kept mainly to the ‘creeks’ that meander through the area as well as the trails that are trampled by the resident kangaroos.

After I had trudged through the saltmarsh for some time, surrounded by the usual species — White-fronted Chats, Little Grassbirds, Striated Fieldwrens, Eurasian Skylarks and the like — I stopped and scanned across the canopy of the vegetation, and was surprised to see a Blue-winged Parrot in the very top of a shrub, only about 20 metres away.  I was even more surprised to see through my binoculars a couple of much brighter parrots among the foliage of the same bush — Orange-bellied Parrots! 

The longer I looked, the more parrots I could see clambering about among the foliage, but it was the two bright ones that held my attention.  I was able to creep closer to them, and tick off the characteristic features of Orange-bellied Parrots; they were easily compared with the nearby Blue-winged Parrots. 

After confirming my rare sighting, I tried to obtain a view from a different angle to see whether they were banded (their legs were obscured by the grey-green foliage from this front-on angle).  When I moved, I managed to flush all of the birds (a total of six BWPs and two OBPs).  As they flew off, the two Orange-bellied Parrots gave their characteristic buzzing call, something I had not heard for at least 15 years, but it was, nevertheless, instantly recognisable. 

Tellingly, the Blue-winged Parrots flew off to the south and circled around, quickly returning to roughly the same spot, while the two Orange-bellied Parrots flew off separately to the north-east, continuing in a straight line, gaining elevation all the while until they were lost to sight.

Subsequent searches of this and nearby wetlands over the next few days failed to relocate them.

Interestingly, my previous record of the species was also at this wetland, but in an entirely different section of the saltmarsh.  After that sighting, perhaps 15 years ago, I had always assumed that it was to be my last…

John Peter

Senior Writer, Birdlife Australia